


Night has this effect

by Kinns



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Brotherly Love, F/M, Forbidden Love, Friendship/Love, Late Night Conversations, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 02:35:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17092436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinns/pseuds/Kinns
Summary: “You really are my alter ego if we were not in this universe, if we were fucking not...”“I know, Piochi, I feel it too.”“This strength that binds us, I never had... Our connection, our link... it's ... Tell me that I'm not the only one, Grizou.”“No Piochi, you're not alone, never."





	Night has this effect

**Author's Note:**

> hello people!  
> So, I wanted to write about what happened recently, because it's crazy: the Internet tells us that Man U gets rid of Pogba and the next day Mourinho is fired, dafuq? So yeah, it breaks my mind.  
> Hope you gonna like it and ignore my mistakes! :)

“Grizou, he wants to sell me!”

“What?”

 

It's a funny story, but Antoine has a strange relationship with time. Okay, maybe it's not so funny.

He always gets up at the same time, on weekend and holidays. If he goes to bed much later than usual, he has to sleep for eight hours straight in order not to feel the effects of fatigue.

When someone gives him an appointment at a specific time, he hates arriving after or really earlier, even if it does not bother him to wait for them an hour.

When he sees the training schedules, it is imperative that they begin and end at the times indicated, otherwise it makes him nervous.

Antoine is not rigid in terms of time, only he likes when things have a minimum of a framework, it's more ... That's more reassuring.

When he met Pogba four years ago, he knew from the first moments that this guy was going to mess his good habits up.

First of all, Pogba has no logic: he always arrives earlier for training but is unable to do so in his personal life; his Juve coach raised him well on this point. But damn it, who gets up thirty minutes late and still arrives on time? That does not make any sense!

In addition to that, he delays Antoine's planning without doing it on purpose, just by being him. Paul always calls him before he leaves home, tells him anything, then hangs up and Antoine arrives almost late.

Then seriously, Pogba’s sleep hours? Complete insanity: this guy never feels tired and has sleep debts. Who has damn sleep debts, to begin with? No matter how tiring the day before was, his internal clock wakes him up every morning and Antoine goes to bed earlier in the evening. Paul? Pff, it's as if he put his sleep on a meter and he went to proceed with the checkout process on weekends.

The strangest in all this? Antoine got used to it. He is accustomed to having to wait for Paul at each international break, to receive calls that will delay him or who arrive three minutes after his training, or during meal time. He got to the idea of telling his day to a guy unable to concentrate and happening of the Rooster at the donkey constantly.

When Paul returned to Manchester, they had to readjust because of jet lag. Before Piochi was an hour ahead, now that’s Antoine.

But at the return of the international break to March 2018, all their bearings are destroyed.

Finished the arrivals in advance to the training, ended the calls between noon and two, goodbye the nights ranged. Within a week, Paul destroyed everything Antoine had grown accustomed to in four years.

Paul no longer calls between noon and two, but only in the evening when he returned home and went through all his contacts. He calls him first when he is in a crisis, not before. And it's painful.

During the World Cup, Paul and Antoine hang out together as soon as possible. The rest of the time, the midfielder is on the phone with someone from his family - usually his mother. Strangely, he tries to stall himself on Griezmann's internal clock without much success, but the intention is there.

Once they have won and brought the cup home, they return to their respective clubs. Antoine leaves as soon as he can with Lucas and Thomas, while Paul stays as long as possible in Paris. Yeah, not easy as a situation.

The season begins and Paul cannot get rid of their habit of the last two months. They spent so much time touching each other, training together, playing, tormenting others and joking, that separation is a shock. Paul sometimes sends him texts after texts, calls him in the middle of the night during munchies, shares everything he does via Snapchat, and others.

They are so close and welded that Erika asked him if he was cheating on her or if he was in love with him.

Even though he understood her doubts, they still argued about Pogba and Antoine spent the night in the guest room. What an injustice, damn.

 

The fact is that Pogba sends him a text as soon as there is something and calls him as soon as he knows the striker’s training is over. So understand the impatience with which Antoine looks at the big clock that taunts him in the weight room.

The training is supposed to be over for two minutes, but the session started late. Like, they do not even have a match tomorrow, have not had anything for two days and are well placed in La Liga, La Copa del Rey y the Champions league. Bloody fuck, does Simeone blame him?

Why does he decide to pitch them _now_? It has no interest or meaning, so why? Damn, Antoine is going to lose his temper, even if he would be shut down by Simeone. Time is running out, let him shut up! Is Paul calling him? How was his training day when tensions are at their peak? Here are two games that Pogba remains on the bench when he is a good player, this situation must really hurt him...

Koke and Hernandez make fun of his behavior and his impatience, but the good Hernandez (Lucas for the intimate) silences them.

 

The delivery arrives eighteen minutes after the scheduled time and Antoine almost runs to get his phone. No new messages, no calls, nothing on WhatsApp or instagram. He sighs with relief because if he has no notifications, it's all right.

Lemar messes with him by the way, mocking his dependence on his cell phone. Antoine would have liked to defend himself, but his ring phone cut him off. Gee, it's Paul; so shit has happened.

“Holà.”

“Grizou, he wants to sell me!”

“What?”

“Mou, you see? He wants to sell me!”

So that's how we get to the beginning and Antoine feels his heart collapse on hearing it. Sweaty hands, he answers:

“What do you mean, sell you? Piochi, you are indispensable to your team.”

"Apparently not, since he put a fucking ad on the winter transfer window, shitty bastard!”

Paul is angry, but also panicked. He blows hard and whines at the same time, Antoine hears him pacing, worried.

“Piochi, you'll stay in your club.”

“Grizou, it's unfair.”

He imagines his best friend’s wet eyes and it breaks his heart.

“We all do our best, but _nothing_ goes well. We're sixth in the premier league, that’s a feat, I promise. Like ... I love my team, these guys are like brothers, but I’m suffocating Grizou. I really want to stay and prove to them what I'm worth, but I want to go back to Juve or try in Spain.”

Antoine drops on the bench in front of his locker, without changing himself. His teammates are in the shower or already gone, but he does not pay attention to them. He focuses only on Paul and his discomfort, his desire to scream and cry at the same time, destroy everything while hiding under his duvet to cry.

In all honesty, Griezmann would love to see Pogba evolve in La Liga, draw a good club among the first and see him shine with happiness as in the days of Juve. Damn, he'd like to see him at his peak, because he deserves it.

Time passes and Antoine has not moved. He realizes what time it is when Paul's mother orders them to hang up and ‘ _let little Grizou go home already, Labile come on_.’ It is 21:14 and Erika will kill him.

 

* * *

 

_You can warm the other bed for your mistress._

 

And that's how Antoine finds himself once again in the guest room. He could not even defend himself, since she threw him his pillow from the marriage bed, closed to all discussion.

The next day, he is entitled to the same treatment, except that Paul sent him a screenshot where we see that Mourinho was sacked. Antoine knew that Paul was not going to leave.

 

* * *

 

Antoine never turns off his cell phone because you never know what can happen as an emergency. If his house catches fire, he wants to call the fire department immediately. If robbers break in, he must be able to reach the police. If his mother has a heart attack? What if his brother was kidnapped?

When he explained this to his wife, she opened her eyes wide and said that he had spent too much time watching TV.

In any case, he groans with discontent when his cell phone rings on the bedside table. Fortunately, Erika is not here, she would have given him a bad look and sent him to this room.

“Allo?” He whispers, answering the second call.

“Mon Grizou, sorry to wake you up, I couldn’t sleep.”

“Piochi, I'm going to kill you.”

Paul chuckles sweetly: "No, you’re not.”

He is not wrong and it is annoying. Antoine grumbles: "Shut it Labile.”

With no douts, Paul smiles on the other side, wandering in his house. Antoine rubs his eyes, straightening himself in his bed to be sure of not going back to sleep; bloody fuck, what he does not make him do...

“You are lucky that I have training tomorrow afternoon. Anyway, how's Jesse?” He asks as he leaves the room.

Antoine does not particularly like him and has never really had a chance to talk to him, but he's one of the guys Paul talks about most often with Rashford, Lukaku, and Mata.

“He's unbearable. Rashy and he behave like a fucking old couple, it's disgusting. They are not even dating, do you believe it? One more day between the two of them and I'm going to kiss one to make the other react, they're damn exhausting.”

Antoine laughs as well arriving in the living room, a soft light glowing in the heart. Yeah, Paul often complains about the fusional relationship between these two men, even though he loves them a lot and wants to make them happy as a couple. It's funny, that’s exactly what they are blamed when they are together.

“We will set things up for these dorks, with Luke and Marouane's help, it's really painful to see them turn around without doing anything.”

"Are you sure nothing's going on?”

Paul whines in pain, while Antoine drops into the comfortable sofa.

“ _Oui_ , Grizou, because Rashy talks to me and nothing happens. The worst is that he does not even realize it.”

Does Paul try to send him a message? Because the situation between Lingard and Rashford looks a lot like theirs. With the difference that Antoine is married.

“You think they should get together?”

_Do you think we should try too?_

"Yes," Paul answers softly. “Because they are perfect matches, they are meant to be together.”  _And us?_ He wants to say. “Grizou, they get along well since they met, their arguments are meaningless. Like, they are complementary, you see?”

“We are complimentary too, it does not mean anything.”

Paul breathes weariness, rolling his eyes. “We are soulmates Grizou, you cannot compare anything to our relationship.” The light has just changed into a fire. Paul really has something with words.

“Is it about Mourinho?”

“Hum?”

“Your insomnia, it's because of him?”

Neutral ground is needed, he cannot venture on how to describe their relationship. “A huge part of me is bloody happy that he was fired. But a very, very little part feels guilt and prevents me from sleeping.”

Antoine hears him sigh heavily and bang his head against a work plan. Is he in his kitchen? Paul loves to complain by hanging around his house, looking for a deserted place.

 The striker knows him too well to ask why he blames himself: “You think it's your fault.”

“Yes and…”

“No, Piochi, it's _not_ your fault. The management fired him because he had bad results, did not have good strategies and there were tensions, it's absolutely _not_ your fault.”

“But if I had done more...”

“Paul, you cannot carry a team on your own, you are eleven on the pitch. Even if you had complied with all your coach’s requirements, do you really think that your team would have been better, that Lingard would not have hurt himself, that Lukaku would have scored each time, that Martial would have been more regular? You cannot carry a whole team Piochi, no matter how much the English press hammers it.”

“Grizou...”

“My coach has criticized the team to rely on me too much and he is right because when I do not play and we do not win, it's not pride that I feel, Piochi: it is shame.”

Antoine could never admit that to his teammates, his coach, or even to his wife. Normally, he would have had a hard time explaining that feeling to Paul, but whenever night fell and a fire burned in his heart, he felt free to talk to his Piochi.

The night really had a funny effect on them.

 

The first time it happened, they were facing each other, after the defeat against Portugal during Euro 2016. Unable to sleep, they found themselves in the kitchen and Paul had invaded his personal space as soon as he saw him. Antoine had drawn him to himself, ready for anything, but Paul had stopped him and they had looked deep down at each other's eyes, clinging to each other, waiting only for a movement to take the plunge, drowned in the tension that reigned between them. Then Paul had dragged them to the ground, sat between his legs and started letting off steam, while sharing the same breath.

In the early morning, they went to bed and the next day was normal, not to mention what happened between them. Antoine had so much wanted to kiss someone from his poor life, not daring to touch the forbidden fruit.

 

“I want to succeed with the Reds before changing clubs; I want to finish this story, that's why I came back.”

“And you'll finish with your new coach, Piochi: you'll be wonderful.”

He hears Paul blow, then swallows painfully, no doubt that a few tears have rolled down his cheeks. Paul is too emotional at night: “Grizou.”

“Yeah?”

“You really are my alter ego if we were not in this universe, if we were fucking not...”

“I know, Piochi, I feel it too.”

And it's true, Antoine knew from the first moments that his relationship with Piochi would not be the same as the others. They got along in their first words, seeming to resonate and matching to each other, completing a puzzle abandoned for a long time.

If they were not what they are, maybe they could have spoken to each other frankly. Perhaps Antoine would not have had a daughter, would not have married Erika, would not have had so much trouble recognizing his soulmate.

“This strength that binds us, I never had... Our connection, our link... it's ... Tell me that I'm not the only one, Grizou.”

His tone is desperate and painful, Antoine wants to have it in front of him and to take him in his arms to comfort him, transmit his emotions, but Manchester is so far from Madrid...

“No Piochi, you're not, never. I am aware of it too. I'm so sorry about that. For everything.”

"I know," he says resignedly. “You like her, it's normal.”

“With my heart. You, it's my soul whose calls you.”

“Me too Grizou. It's so good, but I'm afraid: if you had not met her, I feel that touching you would have burned me hard.”

Antoine laughs at his hazardous description as he gets up to get some water.

“Who knows?”

“Thanks, Grizou.”

“Anytime Piochi.”

After getting water and drinking it, he takes the direction of his bed.

“I do not want to hang up,” he admits.

“Neither do I…”

“Can we just keep the phone like this?”

“Yes,” Paul murmurs. “I hear you moving, you go to your room?”

“Yeah, Erika makes me sleep in the guest room right now, I keep messing around.”

“Do you regret it?”

 _Do you regret meeting me? Do you regret our closeness?_  

“No. Never.”

“Cool,” Paul laughs.

Antoine lies down in his bed, exhausted at once, ready to sleep.

“Piochi, tell me a story. You know, following up on these two guys on the other side of the world.”

“Well, so…”

And Paul tells him things that do not make sense, but Antoine does not care, he just wants to fall asleep when he hears his reassuring and loving voice. He really loves the adventures of these two guys who manage to meet and hold on despite the distance and the vicissitudes of life. Their bond is strong and indestructible.

Nothing will be able to overcome them; nothing will separate two soulmates, destined to remain together. Antoine will probably never tell him the words that Paul dies to hear, but they understand each other perfectly, so that's enough for them. When they are alone, hidden from the rest of the world and at an unreasonable distance, it is there that they are best granted.

Because the night has this effect on them.


End file.
